European Games: Irish boxer Aoife O'Rourke wins middleweight gold medal in Poland
- Published
O'Rourke will fight in her second Olympic Games next year
Ireland have won a second European Games gold medal in boxing as Aoife O'Rourke celebrated her 26th birthday by defeating France's Davina Myrha Michel in the middleweight final.
A chorus of 'Happy Birthday' rang out around the Nowy Targ Arena in Poland as O'Rourke's hand was lifted in a unanimous decision victory.
"I'm just over the moon," she said.
"The plan was to qualify but to end up with a gold medal is icing on the cake."
O'Rourke adds to Kellie Harrington's gold, Jack Marley's silver and bronze medals for Michaela Walsh and Dean Clancy as Ireland finished third in the boxing medals table behind France and Turkey.
"No one mentioned my birthday all day and the minute my hand was raised they were all singing away," O'Rourke said.
"I think they had a bit of a plan in place, it's a very special birthday for sure and I'm just absolutely delighted."
"It's a great honour to be representing Ireland, and I'm delighted to have come away with a gold medal and done the country proud."
After Sunday's medal ceremony, Belfast's Michaela Walsh, who secured the all-important Olympic qualification but lost her semi-final to the eventual winner Zidane of France, said winning bronze "feels amazing".
"I'm just so grateful to be in the position I'm in, to be standing with everyone on the podium there; world champion, the top three or four in the world.
"To be standing there with them is phenomenal. The girl that beat me the other day went on to win gold, so I think it just shows you what level I'm at and fingers crossed I'll be standing on that side of the podium next time.
"She was a great opponent, she had a brilliant fight today, like I said it just shows you the level I'm at and I wish her the best, but I will be getting her back in Paris hopefully."
Gold in kickboxing
Amy Wall is Ireland's first ever European Games champion in kickboxing as the teacher from Bray delivered a superb performance to take gold in the Women's Full Contact -60kg category 3-0, over Mariell Gaassan Straume of Norway.
"It hasn't really sunk in yet, the Olympics, anything under that banner has been a dream since I was a kid," the 22-year-old said.
"I'm sure tomorrow I'll sit back and reflect, the emotions are racing right now. I'm happy with how that went, the girl I was fighting is a well respected Norwegian.
"We've met before so I knew I was going to have it tough coming in, but the game plan worked and I executed everything that I needed to and I'm really happy with my performance."
Ireland also claimed two silvers after Nathan Tait lost his 74kg Point Fighting final to Hungarian Martin Balint 15-5.
Team mate Conor McGlinchey also came out on the wrong side of his final bout against Gabriel Sandro Peters of Germany in the 84kg Point Fighting, being beaten by the narrowest of margins 16-15, to claim a second silver.
Amy Wall is Ireland's first ever European Games champion in kickboxing
On Saturday Nicole Bannon and Jodie Brown secured bronze medals in their respective events.
In canoeing, Tokyo Olympian Liam Jegou, and team mate Jordanstown's Jake Cochrane were eliminated at the semi-final stage of the men's event while Michaela Corcoran suffered the same fate in the women's competition.
Jegou was the best of the Irish, finishing in 24th place while Cochrane was 30th, the same placing as Corcoran.
Alistair McCreery went out of the Men's Kayak Cross after the quarter-finals and next up for the canoe slalom athletes will be the World Championships in London in September, where twelve Paris 2024 places will be up for grabs in each of the Olympic disciplines.